AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE RE-ENTRY POLICY REVISED GUIDELINES AND THE BAN ON CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF CHONGWE AND LUSAKA DISTRICTS

Abstract

This study investigated the effectiveness of the Re-entry Policy Revised Guidelines and the Ban on Corporal Punishment in selected secondary schools of Chongwe and Lusaka districts. It involved key stakeholders, including Ministry of General Education (now Ministry of Education) officials in the Lusaka province and the two districts, head teachers, and teachers in those schools (as implementers), and pupils and their parents (as beneficiaries). Since the study was qualitative in nature, the descriptive design and qualitative methods were used for data collection. Secondary data was collected from literature including journals, organizational reports and the government of Zambia policy statements. The study findings were that the two measures were ineffectively implemented, which caused them not to be effective and fail to meet their intended objectives. Therefore, the study recommended that MoGE disseminates both the Re-entry Policy revised guidelines. In the case of corporal punishment, MoGE should first develop guidelines on alternative disciplinary measures to be used in schools. There should be a deliberate programme to ensure that teachers, pupils and parents are knowledgeable of the contents for both (the revised guidelines and alternative punishment guidelines). In addition, MoGE should develop a monitoring and evaluation system to ensure that there is effective monitoring and evaluation at school, district, provincial and national levels of both measures while remedial actions are made timely.